POWER Foods for Power Loss - October 31, 2012

This past weekend, it finally dawned on me as to what is ultimately the best way to prepare for an electricity-losing storm with regards to food. I said a big THANK YOU to Hurricane Sandy (even though this is probably one of the few good things that came out of this hurricane)!On Saturday, I was thinking about the severity of Hurricane Sandy. It was predicted that it was going to pummel the East Coast and leave millions without power in addition to massive flooding. This storm was big folks and it was predicted so. When it comes to losing power, this is extra worrisome for those that value REAL food and work hard to make this a priority for themselves and their families! REAL foodies live and breathe REAL food! As a REAL foodie home, just about all meals are home- prepared/cooked with fresh ingredients that mainly need to stay in a freezer or refrigerator to keep!

I remember preparing for the loss of electricity in the past, when I didn’t realize how food impacts my health. Actually, back then, I also thought I knew what “healthy” meant. I was SOOOOOOOO wrong!

The past few years, as I transitioned to REAL food, my food preparation was much different. Then, FINALLY, this year, I connected the dots to realize the BEST food to prepare for the loss of electricity. I call these power foods for power loss!

Drum-roll please…..Fermented Foods!

Duh! Why hadn’t I thought of this being the best foods? I’ve been fermenting for a few years but I never put 2 and 2 together that fermenting would be the best way to ensure food availability without electricity. Plus, this is how foods were preserved traditionally anyways!

Fermented foods are the perfect solution to the worry about not having electricity for a few days! Why? Because fermented foods, such as fermented cabbage, can be left out at room temperature for days or weeks! (Pour some extra virgin olive oil on a bowl of fermented foods and maybe add 1 or 2 of my other suggestions from below, and you have yourself a pretty sustaining dish) Additionally, fermented foods are much more nutrient-dense and more supportive of our immune system than raw vegetables. PLUS, when it comes to fermented beverages such as kefir, you can run kefir grains continuously for days!

So, that’s exactly what I did – I prepared by making fermented foods. Saturday evening, I got to work (it’s fun too actually) and I fermented mostly all the veggies I had. I was low on fermented foods anyways, so even without the threat of losing electricity, I needed to make some. Here are our Hurricane Sandy fermented beauties!

Along with preparing fermented foods (which is the #1 power food), here are some other suggestions:

Always maintain a stash of coconut oil and ghee – 2 extremely filling saturated fats that don’t need to be refrigerated. They can be added to anything (by the way, they should be regularly added anyways).

Wild canned tuna/salmon/sardines - Get it packed in olive oil if you can. If not, literally POUR olive oil on it to keep you sustained longer.

Bananas – Although bananas aren’t seasonal for most of us, when it comes down to prepping for a storm, this is a good go-to! Try to stagger the ripeness of the bananas when you select them. IMPORTANT NOTE – make sure you have ample fats with the banana to help stabilize the blood sugar impact that the sugar may cause – yes I know it’s natural sugar but it’s still quite a bit of fructose! You can have coconut oil (it may be solid chunks if the temperature is cool), with banana pieces.

Avocados – Again, not really seasonal for most of us. However, these are great because they don’t need to be refrigerated until they are ripe. So when they are ready, without electricity, you need to eat them! They are good with unrefined sea salt, either just as is, or cubed up with your canned tuna/salmon. Or it could be mashed in with a banana for even more fats.

Nuts – enough said :)

Hard-boiled eggs – Make these up before the storm and they can stay at room temperature for some time. These would be good to have in the first day or so of power outage. Add coconut oil and unrefined sea salt. Or pair with a ripe avocado!

I hope this post has been helpful! Perhaps this will help you prepare some POWER foods for the next time the power goes out! I hear we are going to have a pretty intense winter!

PLUS, if you are local to me and want to learn exactly how to ferment foods, register asap for my Homemade Probiotics – Fermenting FUNdamentals workshops! Click here for more information!